Horror-themed party game Brawl announced for PS4

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Hey there, PlayStation fans! This is Michał Mielcarek from Bloober Team. Our latest party game, Brawl, will hit PlayStation 4 soon — and we would like to share some exciting news with you!

What is Brawl? Short answer: It’s a new PS4 horror-themed party game for up to four players. There aren’t a lot of party games on the market right now. We want to fix this — because we believe there’s nothing like spending time with friends and playing games together. We’ve been working very hard to make it as simple and fun as possible. You might call it a throwback to the golden age of arcade games. Hopefully, we’ve managed to capture that classic old-school charm.

The rules of the game are simple. You and up to three other players are dropped into a maze-like level. In order to win, you need to get the most points — which simply means getting the most frags. Each player moves across the screen — trying to outmaneuver the others and blast them to bits with strategically placed bombs. Be careful, though: Your own explosives are just as deadly to you as they are to your opponents — so you’re likely to blow yourself up if you’re not careful.

If the concept seems familiar, that’s probably because it is — but with a MOBA twist and completely new rules! For instance, there are eight characters in Brawl — and each has its own set of special skills. One of them can instantly switch places with its target, and another uses a Medusa-like gaze to briefly immobilise opponents. Finesse isn’t your strong suit? That’s fine. You can just kick other players onto bombs — or one of the numerous traps placed throughout the arena. Then again, if you think violence isn’t the answer, you can get out of tight spots by turning invisible for a few seconds. Watch our latest CGI trailer and guess at some of the unique skills:

The easiest way to learn which character is best suited to your style is to play through the story mode. Yes, there’s story mode in this party game — and it makes perfect sense. We created eight short single-player campaigns so that you not only get to know each character backstory, but you can familiarise yourself with basic gameplay and unique character skills, as well as learning tactics that will help you face off against live opponents.

Brawl lets you compete with players from all over the world in two online modes — but first of all, you can invite your friends over for some couch multiplayer. While online gaming is growing stronger each year, there’s been a steady decline of local multiplayer support and we wanted to change that. Why? Because we believe that playing with your friends in the same room is the best way to enjoy games. Also, you can’t have a real party through the internet, can you!?

We don’t want to spoil the surprise, so let’s focus on the online multiplayer modes for now:

Versus/Arena: These are fairly self-explanatory – simply get the most frags by placing bombs and using your special skills.

Duel: This is our 1v1 mode, in which players fight in much smaller arenas. It’s fast paced, but still very technical — so it feels like a fighting game. It’s perfect for tournaments. We tried it during the e-sports event IEM 2015, and gamers loved it!

As I mentioned, there are a couple of other local-only multiplayer modes. Let me tell you only about Colour Domination, where you change the colour of the arena using paint-filled bombs. The outcome of each match can change radically in a matter of seconds. Also, it’s the one mode where you can literally paint yourself into a corner. Just dwell on that for a moment :)

Oh, and did I mention Challenges? Because we totally have them as well. One will involve a flock of sheep. Wait — what?! Sorry, I was told not to say anything else and particularly not to mention the part where you grind the poor things into pulp. Oops — I didn’t mean to say it out loud! Oh, well . . . it’s a horror-themed game after all. Bottom line, you will have plenty to do — even on your own.

Stay tuned for more news, and feel free to post your questions below. We’ll do our best to answer them as soon as we see them!

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After looking at the visuals for this, I immediately thought, “is this a shinier Basement Crawl?”, so I looked up the studio and, well… yeah, it appears to be. I hyped up Basement Crawl a lot to my friends and family, and to say that game missed the mark is a huge understatement. After seeing this new game, I feel like I paid for what was ultimately the beta test for this game. I hope this one is a finished product.

I also sincerely hope there’s a demo available, because, while I’m still interested in the concept of the game, I am definitely weary of purchasing anything from the studio now without trying it first.

Hey, you’re right, we are that studio. It’s really great that you’re still interested in the concept of the game. Guess what, since you’ve bought Basement Crawl, you will get Brawl for free. Yes, you don’t have to pay for it! Just give it a try when it’s released. I hope you’ll like the game this time. We changed it just as gamers wanted, so we’re sure that it won’t dissapoint you again.

“As I mentioned, there are a couple of other local-only multiplayer modes. Let me tell you only about Colour Domination, where you change the colour of the arena using paint-filled bombs” Or Paint Bomb, as it was called in Bomberman…

Haha, obviously the “charm” you’ve captured isn’t subtle, but if the gameplay is solid then I can’t wait.

There’s story mode tutorial, challenges, online and local multiplayer modes, more characters and they all have diffferent special skills. Don’t think about it as fixed Basement Crawl. It’s a whole new game. We even changed graphics. Oh, and you’ll get it for free if you already have BC.

In response to criticism from players and reviewers, Bloober Team announced the intention to remake the game from scratch under the title Basement Brawl. The remake would be available free of charge to people who bought Basement Crawl.

Everyone who bought our previous game will be able to download BRAWL for free. So you can just wait for their opinion. Also, we’re planning to release the demo. We know it’s going to be really hard to fight your trust back, but we have to try, right? Remember we’re a small, indie developer, yet still we want to give you BRAWL for free.

This game is from the same studio that made A-Men 2, a game that is still broken and you’re not able to complete it since it’s bugged (on the Vita at least, a level says you need to kill 29 soldiers when there are only 27 on the map, iirc). I have heard the stories about Basement Crawl and no surprise there from me based upon how they have handled A-Men 2. So sadly, I have no high expectations from this game.

Hi Ragowit, first of all thank you for information about A-men 2. We weren’t aware of it. Could you please contact us at michal.mielcarek [at] blooberteam [dot] com and describe the problem you’ve encountered in game? As I told – we’re not aware of the problem and we cannot look into it unless you give us specific information.

I also would like you to know that BRAWL is based only on the concept of Basement Crawl. With Basement Crawl we made mistakes, and it’s not something that we have forgotten about. We rebuilt that game from scratch on a new engine with vast improvements and will be releasing it for free to owners of the original. We understand that we can’t right a wrong and simply expect people to forget it. That’s not how it works. This is why we are working closely with gamers on an individual basis and got them involved in development of the game. We just showed BRAWL to people at Intel Extreme Masters and they all enjoyed it a lot! I hope you will give it a try and let us...

Hi Ragowit, first of all thank you for information about A-men 2. We weren’t aware of it. Could you please contact us at michal.mielcarek [at] blooberteam [dot] com and describe the problem you’ve encountered in game? As I told – we’re not aware of the problem and we cannot look into it unless you give us specific information.

I also would like you to know that BRAWL is based only on the concept of Basement Crawl. With Basement Crawl we made mistakes, and it’s not something that we have forgotten about. We rebuilt that game from scratch on a new engine with vast improvements and will be releasing it for free to owners of the original. We understand that we can’t right a wrong and simply expect people to forget it. That’s not how it works. This is why we are working closely with gamers on an individual basis and got them involved in development of the game. We just showed BRAWL to people at Intel Extreme Masters and they all enjoyed it a lot! I hope you will give it a try and let us surprise you :)

We had a lot of fun creating the game and now we are really proud of our work. If you still are not convinced, you’ll be able to check out the BRAWL demo which will be available at day one.

Weren’t aware of it? You had a competition with this game when you released it to win a PS4 (first place), Vita (second place) and games (third place), and in order to win was to be the fastest one to get 100% trophies. And some of us noticed the bugs during the competition making this impossible and notified Bloober Team. I have written to Bloober Team on Twitter (27th jan, 2014 – https://twitter.com/Ragowit/status/427822850481737728), no response. I have even mailed Bloober Team and got a response a couple of days later.

“Hi Markus,

we are aware of some bugs that slipped our QA, we’ll fix them as soon as we have manpower to do so. Patch should be released pretty soon, hopefully.

Pozdrawiam/Regards

Aron CenderMarketing Manager”

In this reply from 28th jan, 2014 so do you clearly say “We are aware of some bugs”.

So I don’t really buy it that you (Bloober Team) isn’t aware of bugs in A-Men 2.

Weren’t aware of it? You had a competition with this game when you released it to win a PS4 (first place), Vita (second place) and games (third place), and in order to win was to be the fastest one to get 100% trophies. And some of us noticed the bugs during the competition making this impossible and notified Bloober Team. I have written to Bloober Team on Twitter (27th jan, 2014 – https://twitter.com/Ragowit/status/427822850481737728), no response. I have even mailed Bloober Team and got a response a couple of days later.

“Hi Markus,

we are aware of some bugs that slipped our QA, we’ll fix them as soon as we have manpower to do so. Patch should be released pretty soon, hopefully.

Pozdrawiam/Regards

Aron CenderMarketing Manager”

In this reply from 28th jan, 2014 so do you clearly say “We are aware of some bugs”.

So I don’t really buy it that you (Bloober Team) isn’t aware of bugs in A-Men 2.

I wasn’t aware of the issue or competition with A-men 2, its really quite shocking for three reasons.

1: it proves that no one at Bloober Team QA even attempted to achieve a 100% completion to ensure there were no bugs that prevented it. Had they done so the bug would not be in the release version.2: it proves that Sony didn’t out the game through certification and merely greenlit without testing. When you submit a game for cert toy are supposed to send a copy of a save file from the retail code with a 100% completion. This clearly wasn’t done.

Of course both of these points are only valid if Bloober genuinely didn’t know about the bug, if they did know however then, yeah, that’s bad.

3: while it is known that Sony QA will give a free pass to certain titles which are so anticipated that they simply cannot afford to fail them because if the pass on the other system it would create a 1 month timed exclusive, it shouldn’t happen but it definitely does and we all know it does. But for ...

I wasn’t aware of the issue or competition with A-men 2, its really quite shocking for three reasons.

1: it proves that no one at Bloober Team QA even attempted to achieve a 100% completion to ensure there were no bugs that prevented it. Had they done so the bug would not be in the release version.2: it proves that Sony didn’t out the game through certification and merely greenlit without testing. When you submit a game for cert toy are supposed to send a copy of a save file from the retail code with a 100% completion. This clearly wasn’t done.

Of course both of these points are only valid if Bloober genuinely didn’t know about the bug, if they did know however then, yeah, that’s bad.

3: while it is known that Sony QA will give a free pass to certain titles which are so anticipated that they simply cannot afford to fail them because if the pass on the other system it would create a 1 month timed exclusive, it shouldn’t happen but it definitely does and we all know it does. But for it to happen for a small indie game? I cannot understand that at all.

Great! You kept your promise! To be honest I thought my money I spent on Basement Crawl would be gone but you came through :) And it looks even better than Basement Crawl. Really liked the concept of the first game now here’s me hoping it’s everything I hoped for :)